MADIKERI: Kodagu district administration and the health department aimed to reach a cent per cent target in vaccination drive by September. However, the misconceptions against the vaccination have not enabled the desired result. Nevertheless, many residents who had denied taking the jab earlier rushed to the vaccination centres following the Omicron scare and the district has now attained 99.43% target achievement in first dose inoculation.
The district administration identified a total of 4 lakh beneficiaries in the district for the vaccination drive. Till Wednesday, a total of 3,97,703 residents have been successfully inoculated with the first dose. And 2297 beneficiaries are yet to take the jab.
“Among the residents who are yet to take the first dose, nearly 1000 beneficiaries were affected with the COVID infection and have not completed 90 days. Further, there has been duplication of data for nearly 1000 healthcare and frontline workers. We have sent this data to be archived in the COWIN portal. The state war room was unable to do this and it has to be done by the centre,” explained Dr Gopinath, RCH Officer.
He explained that only about 300 residents are denying taking the jab and convincing them has become a herculean task. “When the tribes denied taking the jab, we visited their settlements numerous times. All high-ranking medical officers visited them and convinced them to take the jab. However, there are nearly 300 residents – including the educated lot – who are resistant. We cannot force them further as it is against the constitutional rights,” he shared. However, many residents who had earlier denied the vaccines are said to have reported to the centres requesting for the jab after the omicron scare.
The demand has now increased and the department shipped 5000 doses on Wednesday from Chamrajnagar due to the shortage of vaccine supply. The district has achieved 85.28% target of the second dose drive even as residents who are due to take the second dose are being alerted by the department every day.